Single-event upset tests on the readout electronics for the pixel detectors of the PANDA experiment

The Silicon Pixel Detector (SPD) of the future PANDA experiment is the closest one to the interaction point and therefore the sensor and its electronics are the most exposed to radiation. The Total Ionizing Dose (TID) issue has been addressed by the use of a deep-submicron technology (CMOS 0.13 µm) for the readout ASICs. While this technology is very effective in reducing radiation induced oxide damage, it is also more sensitive to Single Event Upset (SEU) effects due to their extremely reduced dimensions. This problem has to be addressed at the circuit level and generally leads to an area penalty. Several techniques have been proposed in literature with different trade-off between level of protection and cell size. A subset of these techniques has been implemented in the PANDA SPD ToPiX readout ASIC prototypes, ranging from DICE cells to triple redundancy. Two prototypes have been tested with different ion beams at the INFN-LNL facility in order to measure the SEU cross section. Comparative results of the SEU test will be shown, together with an analysis of the SEU tolerance of the various protection schemes and future plans for the SEU protection strategy which will be implemented in the next ToPiX prototype.